FALL RIVER — The Marine Museum at Fall River dedicated its library recently to a Swansea couple with deep roots in the museum’s founding nearly a half-century ago.

The library on the second floor is now named for Margot and Tom Cottrell, who have also been instrumental in the museum’s rebirth and revitalization the past two years.

The Board of Trustees chairman, the Rev. Robert Lawrence, made the dedication and extolled the Cottrells for their many contributions.

He spoke about how much it meant to them to preserve the museum by the waterfront and Battleship Cove for future generations.

The Cottrells are among the original life members of the Marine Museum at 70 Water St. The Marine Museum's first collections were acquired from a New York museum in 1968.

Tom Cottrell was among the original office holders, serving as vice president when John S. Brayton Jr. was the president and Douglas Richardson and Donald Ashton were officers.

Margot Cottrell — museum president who, until recently, served for a year and a half as an unpaid curator — named many of the unsung heroes who have been responsible for the museum’s accomplishments in the community over the years.

A framed oil painting of the couple at sea in a friend’s boat and an engraved wooden quarterboard will be part of the library, which features hundreds of books about marine life that researchers and students can use by appointment with assistance of museum staff.

Liz Waring painted the framed portrait.

The museum library includes a donation of 1,000 books given years ago to the John A. Braynaert Marine Library by Dorothy Briegel, in memory of her late brother.

At the July 6, dedication for the Cottrells, about 100 people attended, including their four children, some of their grandchildren and other relatives. During the ceremony, Tom and Margot Cottrell spoke appreciatively of their recognition and role of the museum in Greater Fall River.

Margot Cottrell led the audience, accompanied by Bob Demers on guitar, in a rendition of “On the Old Fall River Line.”

Paintings and models of the Old Fall River Line grace museum's thousands of artifacts, telling the regional story of marine transportation.